“We could go to jail for this!”

True joined us in the sunroom before Mickey finished his first cigarette.

When I was nineteen, my whole world was on fire.

When I graduated therapy, I didn’t have anyone to celebrate with so I invited Omala to Thanksgiving.

The night I found the note, I was desperate: for change, adventure, connection.

Spyke drove south to check the Loser Lap, feeling sure they’d bag a dealer on the night’s first sweep.

The fly droning on and on against the opposite window begins to thwap itself into the clear pane.

She spied. Another lied. No one died – yet.

It’s nearly midnight, and sleep eludes me.

Andrew nudged the thick wooden door with the toe of his boot, the barrel of his rifle pointed straight ahead.

Lulu and Saul bloomed among the irises one summer night in Precious Corners.

They found the body on a hot summer night beneath the pinprick of stars as mosquitos nipped at their ankles.

It’s a summer night like a fever, sticky with sweat and verging on delirious.

Mama works nights and sends us to Mrs. Bloom’s for dinner and sleep.

The skin parted in a line, one side pulling from the other, as the knife slid slowly down.

She finds him in the water up the mountain ridge where birds go to die.

It’s one of those blistering, sticky July nights when even the shadowed clouds of early morning fail to quell the pervasive dampness.

The night I lost my virginity was scorching.

Sadie is my best friend.

It’s been almost a year since Rachel left.